Robert Larson 800-1800 Honing Guide

I bought this honing guide several years ago and finally got the chance to give it a good workout. I have used it primarily to put 30 degree microbevels on chisels and plane irons. It works great for plane irons. I also like the small center wheel on the guide so I can rock it from side to side when honing curved plane irons. (I had ground a curve in one iron to set up the plane for fast material removal).When it comes to chisels, however, I have not been happy. When I set the chisel position for a 30 degree angle the guide positioned the blade at something less than the desired angle. My microbevel ended up a macrobevel. The sides of my chisels are not compatible with the slot in the jig, so I could never tell if they were seated properly. It could be me, it could be my cheap chisels, it could be the honing guide. I'm not sure which, but I'm not going to take the chance of using it with my good chisels. I will, however, continue to use it for plane irons with no reservations.UPDATE: The ink wasn't even dry on my original review when I discovered a You-Tube video put out by none other than the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. It shows how to modify this mass-produced honing guide to prevent distortion of the plane iron and to hold chisels more securely. All it takes is a file and some sandpaper. To get to it, Google "Honing Guide Modification." Lie-Nielsen seems to indicate that you can't beat it once the mods are made. The alternative is to spend about sixty bucks for a Veritas or megabucks for a Bridge City Honing Guide. I haven't modified mine yet, but you can bet I will.

This guide put a perfect edge on a fifty-year old hand plane in just a few minutes. I am impressed.I borrowed my dad' jack plane (he's had it since I was a child and he's in his eighties now). The blade had been improperly sharpened for years. It had a crescent-shaped edge from all the wear and poor sharpening. It had a small chip on the edge too. So I bought this guide to help me sharpen it.The instructions say to use it with an oil stone. But I found it was easier with a full sheet of Emory paper on a flat surface. I could take longer strokes and not worry about imperfections in the surface of the oil stone (also borrowed from my dad). To use this, you lock the blade into the guide, with the cutting edge extended 50mm from the edge of the guide, which creates a perfect 25-degree angle. The only parts that touch the Emory cloth are the roller on the bottom of the guide and the cutting edge edge you want to sharpen. In about fifteen minutes, I was able to undo fifty years of misuse and put a precise edge on the blade. There are some guidelines printed on the side of the tool to create different edges (30-degrees, if you want, or for hand chisels).I used the newly sharpened blade to shave down a Bubinga wood stave about seven feet long. Bubinga is a very hard wood. But this edge held up perfectly over three hours of vigorous use, and I made long, straight, perfect wood curls with each stroke.I was sort of childishly excited about how well it worked, so stopped after three hours and renewed the edge to super sharp in about a minute. What a pleasure to use a sharp tool!In summary, it is a perfect tool for sharpening chisels and plane blades. And it's small enough that it takes up very little room in the tool box. Couldn't be happier with my purchase.

This is a handy little gem, well made and a good value (read, CHEAP); other similar (identical) items on Amazon are more expensive and NOT "Prime" eligible!I use it almost exclusively for wood chisels, but have done one plane blade in it and got good results. Works PERFECTLY with Smith's TRI-6 Arkansas TRI-HONE Sharpening Stones System.  I get great results on all my chisels and considering I use them for scraping and even occassionally asphalt & vinyl floor tile, they get some abuse.I am very happy with this little guide, it is not industrial strength, but great for homeowner, "fix-it" men, most "garage" woodworkers and probably for most general contractor workers. Saves time as you don't have to constantly insure you have right angle for your chisel or plane blade. NOTE: there are two DIFFERENT incident angles for chisels and planes, BE SURE TO USE CORRECT ANGLE for what you are sharpening!!!DO USE oil, for chisels and plane blades most any mineral oil will do fine if you want to save money  Great Lakes Wholesale 16Oz Mineral Oil 60061 Health Products  will work fine, if you want a high quality "honing oil" go with  Lansky Nathan's Natural Honing Oil  which is cheaper and just as good as most other honing oils (and is Prime eligible).Do tighten with screwdriver, finger tight is not enough, and check to be sure you have item in holder at right angle, I use a small ship square to make sure of alignment of blade to holder, fast, easy and always perfect alignment. Both of these points have also been made by other reviewers.DO use oil when using Arkansas OIL stones, they call them oil stones for a reason. Also wipe your stones frequently and reapply oil, this lifts out embedded particles of item you are sharpening and cleans stone giving you a good abrasive surface again. This holds true with non-Arkansas stones and synthetic coarse & medium coarse stones too, just don't oil after wiping them.HIGHLY Recommend.